post news network
Cuttack, August 12: Congress activists reportedly damaged a bus, a car and two auto-rickshaws apart from forcing many people to stay off the road during a dawn-to-dusk bandh by the party’s city unit here Friday.
Congress workers blocked all the major roads of the Silver City including the National Highway 16 to protest the alleged highhandedness of BJD corporators in a recent council meeting of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation and the state government’s callous attitude to address numerous problems grapping the city. According to sources, some Congress workers damaged a passenger bus near Gopalpur on the NH and two auto-rickshaws at College Square which they found were defying their bandh call. They also allegedly ransacked the four-wheeler of Rahasbihari Mohanty,a senior citizen, who was travelling to Bhubaneswar for a health check-up. Disruption of traffic on the NH created a lot of inconvenience for the commuters. “Blocking the NH over some civic issues is highly condemnable. Disruption of traffic on the NH created problems for many travellers who were totally unaware of the bandh call,” said Subrat Mahapatra, a bus passenger from Balasore.
Railway traffic through the city also came to a grinding halt when some Congress activists staged dharna on the tracks at the railway station. City Congress president Md Moquim, however, refuted the allegation of hooliganism by the party activists during the strike. “There has been a spontaneous support to the strike from the city residents. No Congress worker was found indulging in any violent activities,” he said.
